There comes a point where the revamping becomes a rebuilding, when the rebuilding becomes a retooling. And then, at the last, when all that’s required are finishing touches. That’s when you have the team you move forward with.
For better.
For worse.
Sometimes, it’s important to remember just how fundamentally hopeless things seemed around the Knicks on the afternoon of March 2, 2020 — and it’s not a terrible thing to ease the camera back a little bit and get the complete wide-angle shot of what we’re talking about.
The Knicks beat the Rockets at Madison Square Garden that night, to improve to a ghastly 19-41 on the season. But earlier that day, Leon Rose had been appointed the team’s president. As would prove to be his habit from that day forward, Rose eschewed a welcoming press conference and instead chose the writing of an open letter to Knicks fans.
This was the money-shot quote: “Nothing about this is easy or quick so I ask for your continued patience. What I promise you in return is I will be honest and forthright. We will develo+p a plan that makes sense both to jump-start our short-term growth and ensure our long-term successes.”
Two nights later, the Jazz visited the Garden, Rudy Gobert breathed on Donovan Mitchell, and the first firestorm of what would soon follow broke out. A week after that, the season shut down; when it resumed a few months later, the Knicks were in such sad shape that they weren’t even invited along to the bubble in Florida.
That’s how terrible things were.
That’s how steep the hill facing Rose was. And from the jump, he has mostly been equal to his opening pledge. He stopped the carousel of brutal coaching hires by entrusting Tom Thibodeau with the job. He has mostly gotten Thibs-friendly players to fill out his rosters (one notable exception being Evan Fournier, who returned to the Garden as a Piston Monday night).
There was immediate success, a 41-31 stunner in 2021. There was a hiccup, the 37-45 calamity of ’22. There was last spring’s breakthrough, a playoff series win for only the second time since 2000. And there have been an awful lot of smart draft choices and smarter deal decisions. It brings us to where we are, which is a Knicks team that, in theory (and in good health) could be among the most fascinating in the NBA this spring.
The revamping is done. So is the rebuilding. Much of the retooling has been a success. And now the Knicks await the final stroke of Rose’s inspiration. It’s what makes a full-health run of things this spring so vital: not only would the Knicks like to take a swing at the beasts of the East, they’d also like to see exactly where they stand when compared with the East’s other notable teams in terms of what’s necessary to close that gap in full.
Monday’s game with Detroit was just a reminder of all the small choices and difficult decisions Rose has already had to make. Quentin Grimes is also a Piston now, and he was one of the group of young players — along with RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley, Obi Toppin and Deuce McBride — that Rose stockpiled early in his tenure here to build a solid foundation.
Only McBride remains of that group, as Rose correctly helped utilize those other names to both import talent that were of a sounder fit and also to help create roster flexibility. It’s a reminder that draft picks as assets are often far more valuable as chips than they are as actual players.
In some ways, it seems impossible that it’s a week shy of four years since Rose’s arrival, because he has been able to take what he inherited and take what he’s acquired and rapidly turn them competitive. Some of the strokes were big and bold — Jalen Brunson is his clear masterpiece. Others were less obvious in the moment. And there may be one move yet which will make all of the others feel like prelude.
Rose said the day he arrived that we were looking at “a pivotal time in Knicks history,” and he was right, and that time is still current. There is still so much to accomplish, even with all the ground that’s already been made up.
